My Princess

Chapter 35

Two days passed slowly, Narcissa and I twiddling our thumbs as we waited out her illness. Another light snowstorm had come through the previous day and very nearly buried us in the cave, the smallest sliver of light just barely creeping in from the top of the entrance.

By the morning of the 4th day trapped on the side of the mountain my traveling companion appeared to be feeling much better, returning to her snarky self as her bodily fever lessened and her cabin fever grew worse.

"I'm not an invalid y/n. I can help." Narcissa huffed as I once again forbade her from coming with me to hunt for food.

"And that's why I've asked you to collect snow and boil it down into drinkable water. Water is far more important than food."

"You never want me to come with you. Why am I confined to this cave exactly? My fever has been gone for nearly 24 hours already and I feel fine."

"And while I'm glad you're feeling better I have no desire to have it come back because you're too stubborn to rest and allow your body time to fully heal. Plus, you can hardly stomach seeing the animals I bring back. How do you think you'd feel watching me put a spear through the brain of a bunny rabbit?" I was right and she knew it, the other girl releasing an irritated huff but not offering any sort of rebuttal. This had become a common argument between us the last two days and at this point I was looking forward to moving on if for no other reason than to shut her up.

"Fine, whatever." Narcissa grumbled, roughly grabbing the tin can we were using to boil the snow down.

"We'll leave after we eat. I'm hoping to be able to bring down a deer today and have plenty of meat for a few days. I think I've found a way to preserve and carry it with us."

I crawled my way out of the cave for what would hopefully be the last time, squinting against the snow flurries swirling around me. This low on the mountain there were plenty of animals around to hunt. However, that did also mean there were quite a few predators as well. Thankfully my only encounter with one so far had been a lone wolf, far too scared to attack me without its pack present, but I knew better than to drop my guard around the multitude of ferocious beasts that lived in these snowy mountains.

I managed to collect a good sized doe, awkwardly hauling it back to our temporary shelter. After skinning the hide and cleaning the meat I left Narcissa to keep watch over our breakfast as it cooked while I dragged the rest of the animal back outside.

Using the hide of the multiple animals we had eaten over the past few days I made a sort of parcel, filling it with the meat and a thick layer of snow to keep it fresh for as long as possible. I used the rest of the hide to make leather strings, binding it all together for easier travel.

Sitting back on my heels I admired my handiwork with a grin. My father, or rather the man that had raised me, would be proud of how well I was doing on my own. I liked to think my biological father would be proud too, were he still here.

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I tucked my chin deeper into my coat as I trudged forwards, icy wind ripping right through to my bones. It had become increasingly more difficult to push ahead as the snow deepened, every step sapping more and more energy I did not have.

With the snowy winds obscuring our vision I kept up with my traveling companion by having her hold on to the back of my pack, allowing me to feel when she tripped or lagged behind so we did not get separated. We had been traveling for a few hours now without rest and had hardly made half the progress we had previously in far less time. The only thing pushing me forwards now was the hope that the trail flattened out for a while once we topped this hill.